If you are a foster carer in England, you will receive at least £114 a week to spend on each child you look after. The same applies if you foster in Northern Ireland, while in Wales it is more than £140. But if you are a foster carer in Scotland, the allowance varies widely, with one in five local authorities providing less than £100 a week for the youngest children.

That's because in the rest of the UK, governments recommend a minimum allowance and expect all fostering services to give this amount to all foster carers. In Scotland, the government plays no such role, leaving local authorities and independent fostering providers to set their own rates.

The absence of a national allowance in Scotland has led to foster carers receiving hugely differing amounts depending on where they live, and hundreds being out of pocket.

Meanwhile, those fostering in England, Northern Ireland and Wales will, by law, be looking after a maximum of three unrelated fostered children at once (the exception being larger sibling groups). North of the border, foster carers might be caring for as many as seven unrelated fostered children, as well as any of their own, and struggling to give them the attention they require, meet their needs and support their education. They may also have to work with a separate social worker for each child.

Scotland so often sets the standard for social care issues in the UK, but on fostering it has taken a back seat for too long. As the leading charity working to make foster care better across the UK, we have lobbied on the lack of minimum allowances and limits on the number of fostered children – known as placement limits – over the past decade. And now this work is bearing fruit.

In early July the Scottish government published a consultation on its proposed children and young people bill. From a fostering perspective, this legislation could not only bring Scotland in line with the rest of the UK, but actually mean that we are taking a lead.

In addition to minimum allowances and placement limits, the consultation talks about pay for foster carers, something that has yet to be considered seriously by governments elsewhere. Across the UK, only half of foster carers receive any form of fee, with many of these being paid below the equivalent of the minimum wage.

No other profession that works with children is expected to do so without pay. The Fostering Network believes that levels of pay must be comparable to children's residential social workers. And in our survey of children living with foster families in Scotland, released on Friday 28 September, the overwhelming majority (90%) said they were in favour of foster carers getting a wage or fee like staff in children's homes, challenging the commonly held view that children and young people in care do not think foster carers should be paid.

Not only do we know these changes would improve the lives of fostered children and the families that care for them – thereby encouraging foster carers to foster for longer – we believe that they would help fostering services recruit the 1,000 new foster carers needed across Scotland.

The consultation period is now closed, and we await the publication of the bill itself. Throughout its passage through the Scottish parliament, we'll be lobbying ministers and MSPs, and will be urging all those involved or interested in fostering to do the same. This is a once-in-a-decade chance to shape fostering for the next generation. This is the time to make foster care fair in Scotland.